Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister said the Russian ship would be better than the Mistral because it would be ice-strengthened and would be capable of operations in Arctic seas

Russia's only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

NOVO-OGARYOVO, July 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will build an aircraft carrier on its own if France annuls the supplies of Mistral helicopter carriers, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitiry Rogozin said Wednesday as he answered a question from ITAR-TASS.

He said the Russian ship would be better than the Mistral because it would be ice-strengthened and would be capable of operations in Arctic seas.

“I don’t think the renunciation (of supplies of the Mistrals) is highly beneficial for the French President and will cause a big crisis at the shipyard that is building these ships,” Rogozin said. “Also, the French will have to pay a penalty as all these things are mentioned in the contract.

“When we were placing the orders for these ships we didn’t have a technology of large-size assembly then but now we have gotten it,” Rogozin said.

By handing over an aircraft carrier to India last year “we demonstrated the ability to build such ships, all the more so that now we have shipyards with dry docks in Crimea and they presuppose ability to build ships of this class, he said.